The Patterns of Asian Americans’ Partisan Choice: Policy Preferences and Racial Consciousness

Objective This study aims to examine the patterns of Asian Americans’ partisanship acquisition by asking why and in what ways Asian Americans develop partisan affiliation with the Democratic and Republican Party. Methods Drawing on the 2008 National Asian American Survey data and employing logistic regression analysis, this research situates the analytical framework on socioeconomic attainment and political socialization, and tests the extent to which socioeconomic status, policy preferences, and race‐based political commonality constitute the directional components contributing to partisan orientation. Results We find that socioeconomic status cannot efficiently predict Asian Americans’ partisan preferences; instead, Asian Americans’ partisanship acquisition derives mainly from policy preferences and a sense of minority political commonality and racial identity. Conclusion Different from white and African Americans, where socioeconomic attainment and a sense of in‐group linked fate tend to work efficiently to predict their partisanship, in the Asian‐American context, partisan orientation is grounded in a combination of liberal policy preferences and race‐based political calculus. Specifically, liberal policy preferences and the sense of political commonality with blacks and Latinos tend to lay a concrete groundwork for partisan identification with the Democratic Party.